Monday, March 31, 2008

Ender's Game- Characters

*Who are the main characters in the novel? Do you like them? Why or why not? What is special about them? What do they reveal about the universal human experience?
There are a lot of characters involved in this book but the main characters will be Ender, Valentine, Peter, and Colonel Graff. Each character has different personalities and characteristics which make this book more interesting and Ender would be the best example.
Ender is the character that the story is based on and he is six years old when he first attends to the Battle School. He is believed as this ‘chosen one’ who would save the world from the buggers at the Third Invasion which makes his life troublesome and difficult. Because of his talented skills, he has hardships in Battle School which causes Ender to feel isolated and lonely. In this book, Ender shows two very different personalities which are the evil sides of him such as hitting that caused killing and the kind side of him such as trying to have friends and feeling bad when he does mean stuffs even though he does not want to do it. I personally like the character Ender for he has interesting personalities which makes him more special. I also liked the way of how he is the ‘chosen one’ and more intelligent from all of the geniuses. It was curious and interesting to look all the process that Ender overcomes and finally becomes the true hero for his world. He had many obstacles that made Ender in difficult situations such as Stilson, Peter, Bonzo, and the emotions that he couldn’t control himself. I felt very bad for Ender whenever he was getting tortured from someone eventhough Ender didn't really do something bad. Like this, it is quite obvious that every hero has some hardships in their life, but Ender’s hardships were interesting to see which made me want to continue reading the book on and on. The most unique part of Ender was that he looked strong and brave but inside of him was different. He was having a hard time such as having bad dreams like comparing himself and Peter and realizing that he is becoming like Peter. It made me feel very sad for Ender of how he has to save the world and has to be isolated from his peers so that he could be the hero even though he does not want to. Ender could be represented as ‘us.’ It shows that we somehow have talents inside ourselves and by showing it; we can also be a hero like Ender is.
When Ender was having a hard time dealing with Peter, Valentine was the one who would always be with Ender. Valentine is Ender’s older sister who loves and cares Ender. To Ender, Valentine would be more precious person than his parents for Valentine, I mean the most precious person who will be always protecting him and helping him. Valentine has the personality of being calm and gentle when she is also intelligent. It was hard for Valentine to be with Ender when she noticed that she was helping Peter when she shouldn’t be. I am not quite sure if I like this character because there is nothing particularly special about Valentine compared to other characters. Valentine is too kind and nice to everyone (except for Peter) and it would have been more fascinating book if Valentine also joined into the Battle School; although, she couldn’t because she had too nice personality which would be hard for her to survive in Battle School.
Peter. One of the character who has the most evilness inside of his heart. It could be said that his hobby would be bothering and torturing Ender. The whole point of bothering Ender was because Peter was just too jealous of how Ender was better, smarter, and talented compared to himself. The book throughly describes of how Peter acutaully tortures Ender and whenever I read this part, I feel like my heart breaking up. It's so crucial to see of how Peter totures Ender and it seemed like as if Peter REALLY meant to kill Ender. If I were Ender, I would be like so killing Peter up by becoming an one team with Valentine for Valentine knows how serious Peter wants to kill Ender. I personally do not like Peter's personality but I think it was quite interesting seeing how Ender consistently compares himself with Peter when he is in the Battle School. I was able to see how much Ender disliked Peter from the scene when Valentine and Ender met before Ender went to the Commander School. How would it feel like to get tortured from your siblings and how would it feel like to be the one to torture your sibling?
The main reason why Ender had to go to the Battle School, suffer hardships, and become isolated was because of Colonel Graff. Colonel Graff is the one in charge of the Battle school and he was the one who was eager to make Ender to be the acutual 'one.' Although, that Ender didn't like Colonel Graff for he was giving Ender too much pressure, Ender just gave up of himself and decided to be the hero so that Colonel Graff would stop annoy him anymore. I have no feeling towards Colonel Graff. I'm not sure if I like him or whether not. It' s just interesting to see how Colonel Graff belived that Ender is the true one. Eventhough, Ender didn't like Colonel Graff for he gave too much stress to Ender, if would have felt good and pleased of how Colonel Graff believed in Ender. If I were Ender, I would be gald to be a hero for whole world, although, I wouldn't enjoy being isolated.

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